Once again he sat on the veranda like a stray dog. As soon as the lady returned to the family courtyard, he instantly forgot that he had long since ceased to be a slăve. He had been the leader of the Japanese yakuza for 10 years and lived a completely independent life. But as soon as he heard that the lady had returned home after another trip to the secular countries of Europe, he immediately found himself in the courtyard in which he had grown up as a slăve for several years.

From childhood, he was deeply despised for his lowly origins (the son of a butcher was considered even lower than a peasant and a slăve). On one of his lousy days, a little noblewoman, the granddaughter of an influential Japanese aristocrat, saved him from starvation by beckoning him to her with her little finger and hiding him in her palanquin. From that day on, he was a slăve in her courtyard, although she soon gave him the status and rights of an ordinary servant. He didn't care who he was in her eyes, he just wanted to serve her as long as she would allow him.

Because from the day they met and for the rest of his life, she had become his ideal woman and an impossible dream.

And now he waited patiently for the mistress to open the shoji of her room to let in some fresh air, as she always did before going to bed. Then she would finally see her so bored faithful servant.